Maki Kaji (1951–2021), “Father of Sudoku”

legacy.com:

Maki Kaji was known as the “Father of Sudoku” for bringing the number puzzle to a worldwide audience through his magazine, Nikoli.The number puzzle now known as Sudoku existed before Kaji published it in Nikoli, Japan’s first puzzle magazine, which he founded in 1980.

But the puzzle wasn’t widely known, and it didn’t have its now-ubiquitous name. Kaji found the game and fell in love with it, and he decided to perfect it and include it in Nikoli.

He gave it the name Sudoku – roughly translating from Japanese to “every number must be single” – and began publishing it in Nikoli.

Kaji later copyrighted the game. It became a worldwide phenomenon, and Nikoli estimates that 200 million people have solved a Sudoku.“The secret to inventing a good.